'The Dresden Files is my favourite series ever' Patrick Rothfuss, author of The Name of the Wind
***THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES NO.1 BESTSELLING SERIES***
Meet Harry Dresden, Chicago's first (and only) Wizard P.I.
Turns out the 'everyday' world is full of strange and magical things - and most of them don't play well with humans. That's where Harry comes in.
Harry's business as a private investigator has been quiet lately - so when the police bring him in to consult on a grisly double murder committed with black magic, he's seeing dollar signs. But where there's black magic, there's a black mage behind it. And now that mage knows Harry's name.
Magic - it can get a guy killed.
The first case file of Harry Dresden, private investigator and wizard, Storm Front is the first novel in the Sunday Times bestselling Dresden Files series, perfect for fans of Supernatural and urban fantasy fiction by authors such as Benedict Jacka and Ben Aaronovitch.
'Butcher's storytelling is satisfying on a level that's bone-deep'
io9
'One of the most reliable post-Buffy supernatural thriller series on offer'
Time Out
'Dresden has a vitality that few urban fantasy heroes can match'
SFX
The Dresden Files novels begin with STORM FRONT, and continue with FOOL MOON, GRAVE PERIL, SUMMER KNIGHT, DEATH MASKS, BLOOD RITES, DEAD BEAT, PROVEN GUILTY, WHITE NIGHT, SMALL FAVOUR, TURN COAT, CHANGES, GHOST STORY, COLD DAYS and SKIN GAME.
For more of Harry Dresden's adventures, check out the Dresden Files short story collections SIDE JOBS and BRIEF CASES.
- ISBN10 0356500276
- ISBN13 9780356500270
- Publish Date 5 May 2011 (first published 1 April 2000)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Orbit
- Format Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
- Pages 336
- Language English
Reviews
SilverThistle
Anyway, it got a bit better after those first few chapters. Or at least I think it got better, I'm not altogether sure if it did actually. Maybe it was just more of the same and I got used to the style. That's the thing with this book, I'm not sure what to make of it or what to think.
Harry Dresden is a wizard. But a crappy one. Or is he? I don't think he's meant to seem crappy but that's how he comes across to me.
He's got a gumshoe/Philip Marlowe/Sam Spade thing going on but he's also got wizardy powers and you'd think that would be a huge advantage to him, but no, he doesn't know what he's doing half the time or even HOW to do it (and if sometimes he does know - he's too scared to do it).
If you took out the wizard stuff then this is just a detective story. Without magic he's just Columbo (minus the razor sharp mind). He even has a ratty duster coat that he eats, rests and plays in.
It's a book about a down on his luck Private Eye who is useless with women (although women seem to go for him, for some reason) and he's got special paranormal powers. That's it in a nutshell really.
So, why then do I like it? I have no clue. I honestly don't know - I just do. I wouldn't recommend it to others, I won't stay up 3 nights running to devour the rest in the series and I don't even particularly like Harry Dresden as a character. Doesn't make any sense but it is what it is.
I want to read the next few, and I will, but I'm not desperate for them. And if he would just stop defining women by how much make up they wear and what clothes they wear, he and I will get along a lot better in later books.
empressbrooke
I read the 300-pages of Storm Front in less than 24 hours, and it was such a relief to read something light after a lot of the books I've been reading lately. The series is about a wizard named Harry - but not that Harry. Harry Dresden lists himself under "Wizard" in the phone book, and basically serves as a private eye. His friends include Karrin Murphy, a police lieutenant who turns to him for help in supernatural crimes, and Bob, a memory spirit who lives in a skull.
I was instantly reminded of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series; it's told in the first person by a hardboiled character who lives in a world where the paranormal is normal. Luckily, unlike Anita, Harry doesn't engage in insane sex with long-haired men who wear thigh-high boots every 10 pages, so I guess the comparison is to the early Anita books. As a stand-alone novel, it would be rather disappointing, but it's just perfect as a beginning to a series. It sets up the characters and hints at things in their pasts that are sure to be explained more later on. I've got the rest of the series lined up on reserve at the library, and hopefully they will live up to the expectations Storm Front created.